Says Williams of the play, which will open on Broadway this spring, “It just hit me hard, it was so powerful. I read it, and I was going: ‘I’m in. I can come into it and create it from the ground up.’ And I’m hairy enough to be a tiger, so that’s good.”
Tag: 10.21.10
So Ballet’s Dying, Is It? Homans and Kain Battle It Out
“In a debate hosted by Jian Ghomeshi of CBC’s Q cultural affairs show, Jennifer Homans said she despairs for the art form, but National Ballet artistic director Karen Kain argues it’s alive and kicking.”
The Three Tenors of the Baroque-alypse
Ian Bostridge writes about a troika of singers that fired opera stages and composers’ imaginations in the early 1700s: Francesco Borosini, for whom Handel wrote two of his greatest operatic roles (Bajazet and Grimoaldo); Annibale Pio Fabri, another Handel regular and one of Vivaldi’s top stars; and John Beard, a London theater star who sang the heroes in many of Handel’s late oratorios.
Playwrights Should Have Their Characters Talk to Each Other, Not to Us
Charles Isherwood: “Direct address, as it is called in the trade, has become the kudzu of new playwriting, running wild across the contemporary landscape and threatening to strangle any and all other dramaturgical devices.”
NYC Denies Guggenheim Permit To Build Better Hot Dog Stand
The museum had “asked the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for permission to construct a permanent food kiosk outside its entrance on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. Its architects envisioned a sleek alternative to all those blue and yellow umbrellas, one that might possibly propel a few carts to seek alternative feeding grounds down the avenue.”
Ontario Survey: 81 Percent Say Arts Are Important To Their Quality Of Life
“The survey also shows agreement across all regions of the province and all demographics, although women, those with higher education and those living in larger communities are typically the most ardent arts supporters.”
Hockey Musical Screws Up History (“We’re Idiots!”)
The would-be Canadian ice-rink anthem Hockey, the Greatest Game in the Land was poised to be a breakaway hit, but instead has clanked off the crossbar. When apprised of the hockey-lore inaccuracy, the film’s director, Michael McGowan, was stunned. “Oh my God, we’re screwed,” he groaned. “He [Bobby Orr] didn’t play in ’72? Well, then, we’re idiots basically. You can write that we’re complete morons.”
UK Indy Publishers Say They Might Go Under Because Of Arts Funding Cuts
“The 59 literature organisations funded by the Arts Council are absorbing the implications today of the swingeing 29.6% cut to its budget announced yesterday”
At Stake: UK Funding Cuts Provoke Culture War
“It’s disturbing how easily the coalition has played a game of divide and rule. Each sector of public-funded Britain has fought its own battle in isolation from the rest. This means that in effect, museums have competed with scientists, theatres with universities. Do I want Britain’s museums to stay free and strong? Yes. But not at the expense of the destruction of scientific research or university teaching.”
Inside The UK Arts Funding Cuts
“There was a mixed reaction from the cultural world to the planned cuts, with national museums breathing a sigh of relief that they will get off lightly with a 15% cut, and those in the arts – including theatre, music, dance, opera and festivals – contemplating what National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner called a “dismaying” 30% cut to Arts Council England (ACE).”